Posts Tagged ‘New Jersey Nets’

April 20, 2016 · 10:32 AM ET

HANG TIME BIG CITY — Former NBA point guard and legendary collegian Dwayne “Pearl” Washington died today at age 52, according to Syracuse.com. Washington was hospitalized last year with a brain tumor, for which he had been receiving treatment.

A native of Brooklyn, Washington played at Syracuse, where he was a consensus All-American averaging 15.7 points and 6.7 assists over his Syracuse career, where he played a crowd-pleasing style during the heyday of the Big East Conference.

As brilliant as his collegiate career was, Washington never reached that level of success in the NBA. Washington was taken 13th overall in the 1986 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. After two seasons with the Nets, the Miami Heat selected Washington in the expansion draft. Washington played one season with Miami, averaging 7.6 points and 4.2 assists over 54 games, before being released.

Today we mourn the loss of Pearl Washington. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

As Washington told the New York Times in 2003: “I had a God-given talent and I was always ahead of everybody else in high school and in college. But when I got to that next level, guys were above me. So at that point, you have to say either ‘I’m going to work at it to become a good player in the NBA,’ or, ‘This ain’t for me anymore.’ I decided that it wasn’t for me. I didn’t love it enough to really work hard at it anymore. But I have no regrets.”

August 25, 2015 · 12:34 PM ET

HANG TIME BIG CITY — Dwayne “Pearl” Washington, former New Jersey Nets and Miami Heat point guard, is hospitalized in Syracuse, NY, awaiting surgery on a recurring brain tumor, according to a report from Syracuse.com.

Washington, 51, will have surgery at Crouse Hospital on Thursday. He has been reluctant to speak publicly about the recurrence of the tumor, his friend Mark Finney said, “because he’s a very private person.”

Mark Finney is the son of Betty Finney, a Cortland woman with whom Washington had formed a deep, abiding friendship over the years. Washington gave the eulogy at Betty Finney’s funeral in July.

As for news about his own health, Washington “wants to keep it as low-key as possible,” Mark Finney said. But Finney and Washington understand that because of Pearl’s place in SU basketball history, word had started to leak out about his condition.

Washington has received visitors in his hospital room, Finney said. Those visitors have included Orange assistant coach Mike Hopkins, who stopped by Monday to see the former point guard.

“He’s having a great day today,” Finney said by telephone Monday afternoon. “He’s much more relaxed. He’s taking everything in stride and he’s grateful for all the support he’s getting.”

Washington, said Finney, is facing a “very serious” medical procedure this week.

“Many prayers are requested,” Finney said. “Pearl has prayed for a lot of people over the years and we’d ask that you please pay back those prayers to Pearl.”

A native of Brooklyn, Washington played at Syracuse, where he was a consensus All-American averaging 15.7 points and 6.7 assists over his Syracuse career, where he displayed a crowd-pleasing style on the floor during the 1980’s heyday of the Big East Conference.

But as brilliant as his collegiate career was, Washington couldn’t sustain that success in the NBA. Washington was drafted 13th overall in the 1986 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. After two seasons with the Nets, the Miami Heat selected Washington in the expansion draft. Washington played one season with the Heat, averaging 7.6 points and 4.2 assists over 54 games, before being released.

As Washington told the New York Times in 2003: ”I had a God-given talent and I was always ahead of everybody else in high school and in college. But when I got to that next level, guys were above me. So at that point, you have to say either ‘I’m going to work at it to become a good player in the NBA,’ or, ‘This ain’t for me anymore.’ I decided that it wasn’t for me. I didn’t love it enough to really work hard at it anymore. But I have no regrets.”

January 8, 2015 · 9:25 AM ET

HANG TIME BIG CITY — The 2003 Eastern Conference-champion New Jersey Nets are reuniting … in Milwaukee.

According to a report from ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Milwaukee Bucks, coached by former Nets point Jason Kidd, have agreed to a 10-day contract with former Nets forward Kenyon Martin.

Sources told ESPN.com that the Bucks have committed to add Martin to their roster this week, perhaps as early as Thursday, after letting a player go to open up a spot.

…

Players can sign two 10-day contracts before a team must commit to either sign them for the rest of the season or let them go.

…

The former No. 1 overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft has averaged 12.5 points and 6.9 rebounds ‎in 14 seasons. He auditioned for the Bucks last week and is expected to help them try to fill the frontcourt void left by the ongoing absence of center Larry Sanders, who has returned to the team this week but says he is working on his “psyche and my physical health” after unspecified personal issues recently.

The 6-foot-9 Martin, who is 37 years old, last played for the New York Knicks in 2013-14, averaging 4.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game in 32 appearances. Kidd and Martin last played together on the 2012-13 Knicks.

Martin should provide depth and leadership to the Bucks frontcourt, which has been shorthanded following the season-ending injury to rookie Jabari Parker and the absence of Sanders, who has been out dealing with what have been termed personal issues.

“I’m trying to get to the root of a lot of issues and get them corrected. Without getting them corrected, I don’t think basketball is something I could do,” Sanders told reporters earlier this week.

The Trail Blazers called The Rose Garden Home since 1995, and although team president and CEO Chris McGowan surmised: “The Rose Garden put us on the map, the Moda Center’s going to take us into the future,” Blazers fans seem to have an affinity for roses.

The sudden death of The Rose Garden made us nostalgic for the good ol’ days when an arena name meant something, by gosh, or at least sounded like it did. Gone are The Omni, The MECCA, The Spectrum, The Summit and The “Fabulous” Forum, among others.

Lost are the coliseums like the Coliseum at Richfield — or as I remember it, “Richfield Colisuem” — and the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Which leads to another bygone era of patriotism in arena/stadium naming such as Phoenix’s old barn and Portland’s Rose Garden predecessor, Memorial Coliseum.

And forget about naming an arena after the great metropolis in which it sits. Once New Orleans finds a deal (assuming it can), the mighty Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills will stand alone.

We’re left with a hodgepodge of cold, corporate neon signs on big buildings. It’s difficult enough to keep track of player movement, let alone which stodgy bank or hot company du jour has its name on which arena this week.

Some of these companies seem to come and go with every Wall Street ebb and flow. Quick, name the Philadelphia 76ers’ home arena … For 27 years they suited up at The Spectrum. In the 17 years since moving into a new arena, the place has gone by four corporate names. If you said Wells Fargo Center, congratulations. If you said CoreStates Center, First Union Center or Wachovia Center, please catch up.

It’s hard to believe we’re a solid two decades into naming-rights deals with the late, great Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss really ushering in the era 25 years ago when he signed a deal with Great Western Savings and Loan, changing the Forum to Great Western Forum. The genius behind it is there was little backlash because so few people outside California recognized Great Western as a bank, it almost seemed like a natural name change for a venue that had grown famous for its basketball, boxing and concerts.

The Chicago Bulls weren’t too far behind, going corporate in 1994 with their move into the cavernous United Center and the great Celtics ditched the Boston Garden a year later for something called the FleetCenter. Yes, Fleet specializes in enemas, but this Fleet was actually a Boston-based bank. Of course, once Fleet was sold to Bank of America, the arena name had to be flushed.

In the name of nostalgia, what follows is a history of arena names for each of today’s 30 NBA teams (via basketball-reference.com):

April 29, 2013 · 1:19 PM ET

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS —Jason Collins displayed his courage routinely as a big man whose specialty was fighting for space under the rim against the likes of Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard. So the journeyman center, who played for both the Celtics and Wizards this season, had nothing to prove to me, you or anyone else when it comes to courageousness.

Jason Collins played for both the Celtics and Wizards last year, his 12th season in the NBA (Brian Babineau/NBAE)

Yet Monday, he showed an entirely different type of bravery when he came out as the first openly gay athlete in a major American sport.

“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.”

Those 12 words he wrote in a piece for Sports Illustrated will not only change the course his life but the lives of his friends, family, teammates and coaches (past, current and perhaps future). They will change everyone else involved with the NBA. Now that this barrier has been broken, Collins will forever be linked to this groundbreaking moment and what comes after.

I cannot think of a man better equipped to deal with this new reality. Collins always has been regarded as the ultimate professional, one of the smartest players of his generation and a teammate willing to give it all up for his team. No one spends 12 years getting cracked in the face by the sharp elbows of some of the best big men in NBA history without being willing and able to withstand some pressure.

Collins always has been one of my favorite players to talk to about basketball and beyond. Catch him in the locker room before a game and bring up almost any topic and he could educate you on a thing or two.

So for every person who has an issue with Collins coming out — and there are sure to be plenty of them — there will be just as many who support him and have his back, folks who commend him for his courage and his refusal to fear the foolish reactions of some.

… support should not be a problem.

“As Adam Silver and I said to Jason, we have known the Collins family since Jason and Jarron joined the NBA in 2001 and they have been exemplary members of the NBA family,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said in a statement. “Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue.”

Collins is a wealthy Stanford graduate with options galore and seemingly no need to share his truth with the judging masses. Yet he does, unflinchingly. Collins explaining himself is refreshingly honest:

Why am I coming out now? Well, I started thinking about this in 2011 during the NBA player lockout. I’m a creature of routine. When the regular season ends I immediately dedicate myself to getting game ready for the opener of the next campaign in the fall. But the lockout wreaked havoc on my habits and forced me to confront who I really am and what I really want. With the season delayed, I trained and worked out. But I lacked the distraction that basketball had always provided.

The first relative I came out to was my aunt Teri, a superior court judge in San Francisco. Her reaction surprised me. “I’ve known you were gay for years,” she said. From that moment on I was comfortable in my own skin. In her presence I ignored my censor button for the first time. She gave me support. The relief I felt was a sweet release. Imagine you’re in the oven, baking. Some of us know and accept our sexuality right away and some need more time to cook. I should know — I baked for 33 years.

When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue.

I realized I needed to go public when Joe Kennedy, my old roommate at Stanford and now a Massachusetts congressman, told me he had just marched in Boston’s 2012 Gay Pride Parade. I’m seldom jealous of others, but hearing what Joe had done filled me with envy. I was proud of him for participating but angry that as a closeted gay man I couldn’t even cheer my straight friend on as a spectator. If I’d been questioned, I would have concocted half truths. What a shame to have to lie at a celebration of pride. I want to do the right thing and not hide anymore. I want to march for tolerance, acceptance and understanding. I want to take a stand and say, “Me, too.”

It takes a brilliant mind to articulate thoughts as meticulously and honestly as Collins has here. It takes an understanding of who and what you are, at your core, to do this knowing that there are so many people still willing to give into the prejudice that is sure to come.

It takes true courage to do this without worrying about the repercussions. And courage is something Collins has in surplus, both as a basketball player and as a man.

He wants to march for tolerance and acceptance and understanding. He wants to take a stand.

April 23, 2012 · 11:31 PM ET

NEWARK — The Nets played their final game in New Jersey on Monday.

So … whoop-de-damn-doo?

It’s been an eventful, but not so successful 36 years (one as part of the ABA, the last 35 in the NBA) of Nets basketball in the Garden State. Only 12 winning seasons and 16 trips to the playoffs. More disappointments than successes. And no championships, of course. Their ABA titles came on Long Island.

New Jersey governor Chris Christiesays “good riddance.” And given the Nets’ attendance over the last several years, you’d assume that they won’t be missed much.

But among the 9 million Jersey residents, there’s still a pocket of passionate Nets fans. And among those 36 years of Nets basketball in the state, there are plenty of great memories.

Those fans and those memories came together Monday, as the Nets sold out the Prudential Center and celebrated their New Jersey history by bringing back several retired players for a halftime ceremony.

April 10, 2012 · 1:53 PM ET

BROOKLYN — It’s been eight years since Bruce Ratner bought the New Jersey Nets with plans to move them to Brooklyn. Eight years of lame-duck status in the Garden State, with the last few being particularly ugly in terms of the basketball product.

But now, the Nets have just four more games in the state they’ve called home for the last 35 seasons. At the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, Barclays Center will be completed in September.

On Tuesday, with Ratner at his side, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov toured his new arena for the first time in over a year. And then met with the media, saying “I’m sure it will be the best arena in the world.”

There’s no question that the move to Brooklyn will usher in a brand new era for the Nets. But there are plenty of questions regarding the players who will wear “Brooklyn” on their chest. And the questions start with point guard Deron Williams, who has promised to exercise the early termination option in his contract and become a free agent this summer. Prokhorov said he met with Williams on Monday.

“We have, I think, a very good discussion,” Prokhorov said. “He really wants to win. And I want to win maybe even more.

“I think [at] this stage, we’re on the same page.”

The question is how quickly the Nets can become a winning team in Brooklyn. When he bought the team in 2010, Prokhorov promised Nets fans a championship within five years. And after a fifth straight season out of the playoffs, a title doesn’t seem to be the horizon.

“The Nets, like the arena, is still under construction, still in the building stage,” Prokhorov said. “And I will keep my prediction on the championship. So I’ll do my best, together with my friends, together with my partners, and we will make the Brooklyn Nets the champion of the NBA. I am very committed to this.”

If Dwight Howard didn’t change his mind that one last time before the trade deadline, the Nets’ future might be a lot brighter. And despite Howard’s decision, Prokhorov made it sound like he still wants to go the superstar route in building his team, saying, “I think every owner wants to have a great player.”

“We need to be really, very patient, because it is easy to have a good team, a playoff team,” he said. “And it’s very difficult to make a championship team. So we need to be very patient. We need to go slow, step by step, to find the best pieces for the team.”

That doesn’t mean that this year didn’t bring some promise. Prokhorov mentioned young players MarShon Brooks and Gerald Green, as well as the addition of Gerald Wallace, as keys going forward.

“Now we are slowly coming to the more or less adequate situation,” Prokhorov said. “And of course, if it hadn’t been for the crazy injuries this year, I’m sure we would have been in the playoffs. That’s for sure.”

March 16, 2012 · 1:17 PM ET

ORLANDO — It was a schedule-maker’s cruel idea, putting the Nets in Orlando the day after Dwight Howard officially broke their hearts. But there they were, unloading themselves from the team bus for the morning practice, stepping inside Amway Center feeling a bit emptier, and certainly in no hurry to see Howard on the home bench later in the evening.

“We’ll survive,” said Nets coach Avery Johnson.

Had Dwight had a change of heart for the 4,576th time Thursday and refused to return to Orlando for at least one more year, the scene at the Amway Center would be totally different. The building, not even two years old yet, would resemble … well, Prudential Center in Newark, the soon-to-be vacated home of the Nets. Without Dwight, the energy surely would’ve been sucked from a team that’s sitting in third place in the East, and a franchise that’s one of the best-run in the NBA.

March 15, 2012 · 1:43 PM ET

NBA.com Staff Reports

Dwight Howard waiving his early termination option took him off the trade market and out of the free-agency pool for 2011-12. That put a kink in the rebuilding plans for New Jersey, which was on Howard’s preseason draft “wish list”.

March 15, 2012 · 12:56 PM ET

Dwight Howard went from being the face of the trade deadline to being an innocent bystander. He signed away his Early Termination Option, meaning he’ll be with the Magic at least until the summer of 2013 (at a cost to Orlando of $19.4 million). It ended a weird week in which Howard changed his mind several times, before giving the Magic at least one more chance to convince him to sign long-term.

Howard initially was only open to staying with the Magic this season, saying the team had to “roll the dice” on him this summer. And that was an upgrade over his stance at the start of the season, when he gave the Magic a list of three teams — Mavericks, Nets and Lakers — to trade him to. In truth, Howard was always cool to the idea of signing with the Lakers, and was only interested in the Nets and hooking up with Deron Williams, also a free agent this summer.

In a sense, by only guaranteeing one more year in Orlando, the Dwama will start all over again this summer. Until Howard inks a long-term deal, there’s always a chance of him leaving the Magic. But by signing the ETO, Howard has left the door open for an extension. It’s the surest sign that he can see himself in Orlando for the immediate future, if not the rest of his career.